Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Air Force releases report on 'negligent' AFA officers

Remember all the flak over whether Air Force Academy dean of faculty Brig. Gen. Dana Born and assistant dean Col. Richard Fullerton lied about faculty credentials?

Well, the Air Force Inspector General's Office has finally coughed up the investigation record, which concluded both were negligent under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which we reported in February.

Here are the pertinent parts of the report about Born, found on pages 24 and 25:

Asked to comment, the academy issued this statement Tuesday: "The Superintendent reviewed the findings and took appropriate administrative action. And as the IG noted, there is no evidence that our faculty are not qualified to teach the courses to which they are assigned."

But David Mullin, a former academy professor who has a legal action pending against the academy, says he will further pursue the issue by making a formal complaint with the commission of higher learning that accredits the academy.

"The Air Force is misrepresenting the higher learning standards regarding faculty credentials," Mullin tells us. "The Air Force says there are no standards, and it's up to the academy to decide what the standards are. You need to have sufficient graduate course work in the field you're teaching. It's not at the complete discretion of a college's administration to determine" what credentials are necessary for its faculty.

Rather, he says, colleges and universities should meet standards set by accreditation agencies, and the academy does not meet those standards.